Friday, April 11, 2014

Utterly delicious maple nut granola

During my brief but illustrious career as a baker, I was tasked with building the breakfast menu. Someone else provided the toast, bagels, sweet rolls, and croissants, but everything else was up for grabs. After weeks of churning through all sorts of biscuits and muffins and scones, it suddenly hit me… woah. We haven't even thought about granola. And not your average crumbled-suet-in-a-bowl kind of granola, but a really good one.

I perused the Interwebs to figure out the basic ratios for fat/sweet/grain. Some recipes called for (gasp) corn syrup and buckets of sugary dried fruit, while others looked like a food fight erupted in the bulk foods aisle of your local co-op. Enough already.

What I came up with was a mishmash of both, a really lovely blend that honors your craving for candy and your body's need for a bit of, well, roughage.

While what you see here is my own personal definition of "perfect," it's a wonderfully flexible recipe. Not fond of peanut butter? Try almond butter or maybe even cashew butter. Want more nuts? Go for it! Sprinkle some flax seed on there while you're at it. Prefer dried cherries? Mix away.

After a brutal winter that sucked most of my mojo for just about everything, I awoke last Saturday with a clear vision of how the day needed to progress -- and it involved two trays of this granola slowly roasting in my oven. It's the perfect sweet and nutty counterpart to these brisk April mornings.

Slowly combine all the wet ingredients with a whisk. It will become a tantalizing slurry that, despite all that oil you just saw go in there, you will want to drink. Resist the urge.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix thoroughly. I like to roll up my sleeves and dig in with my hands. The goal here is to coat every single oat, nut, and bit of coconut with some of the slurry.

Spread this mixture evenly onto two sheet trays and place in a 250-degree oven.

Now, there are two ways you can do this. You can be sloppy and just let it bake for two hours. Or, you can do the right thing and check in on your baby every 15 minutes. Pull out the trays and shuffle the granola around. Flip the clumps, give everything a good stir. You want a slow, even roast.

In about two hours, you'll be ready to stop checking on your granola - and it should have achieved a lovely golden hue and satisfying crunch.

But wait! One more step: FRUIT. You don't add these at the beginning because they'll heat too much and caramelize into little tooth-breaking bullets. Instead, you wait until now to add as many fistfuls of raisins and dried cranberries as you desire. Give it a good stir, then put everything back into the (now off) oven and forget about it. The residual heat will cause just enough caramelization for a satisfying chew without going any further.

Once the granola has completely cooled, pour it into a Mason jar and enjoy.

I can't tell you how long it keeps because mine is always gone within a week. It really is that good.

Wow, I've been looking for a good granola recipe, and here it is! My question, what about honey instead of maple syrup? I am not a fan of Maple (I know, sorry! as rural North East girl myself, I'm ashamed...)

Hi Rebecca! You can substitute honey for the maple syrup. Honey is a little heavier than maple syrup but it shares similar sweetness. It'll be pretty powerful. I should note that the finished results don't hit you over the head with a maple flavor - it's a subtle blending with the nuttiness of the oats and roasted nuts in a way that makes the whole thing taste like a cookie. However, don't use maple if you're not a big fan. :-)

Oh, this sounds sooo good! I used to make my own granola but haven't for years (kids, work, life). This might just get me back to it. Especially the little tip about putting the fruit in at the end; I remember the far-too-hard raisins...

My granola is in the oven.I have never seen a granola with peanut butter in it..but now that I have mixed the batch (and smelled it), and have been obsessively turning and mixing every 15 minutes (because what is granola without amazing golden throughout!?!?), I cannot wait. The peanut butter is going to be amazing. Now wondering if my original pick of cranberries and cherries are the proper fruits --- or I go and chop up some figs and apricots.

This is very similar to a recipe my daughter gave me a few years ago.....I always make a huge batch and then freeze it. I put it over my vanilla yogurt.... I need to make another batch this week. I think I'll try the peanut butter!

I made this recipe tonight and it came out just perfect. I added dried blueberries and cranberries. This will be on my favorite list from now on! And did I mention that I made granola myself for the first time?

I made a batch of this and can totally vouch that it is delicious! It sure looks pretty sitting there in that jar on my counter, but that won't last long, not at the rate I'm eating it. Thank you for the recipe. :)

Sitting with an extra large batch of this in front of me. Adam and I keep reaching for a nibble between sips of cocktail. I used almond butter in place of peanut, because peanut cookies are my nemesis. Used an extra large portion of pecans, hazelnuts and almonds, because they were getting close (passed) the date and subbed some walnut oil for canola. Double yum!

I am going to try this. I like the idea of boosting the protein content. I use fresh fruit as I think the dried fruit gets hard after time anyway, but maybe it wouldn't with this recipe. Thanks for the recipe.

Thank you for this recipe. I adore this stuff. Someone asked a while back about coconut oil. I substituted it for the canola oil the first time I made it because it was what I had on hand and it was so delicious, I haven't tried the canola. I have my fourth batch going now. =)